Passage Theatre to open new season with “Out of the City”
By Anthony Stoeckert
From The Princeton Packet
June Ballinger figures audiences could use a few laughs right about now, and she has just the play for them.
Passage Theatre, the Trenton-based company for which Ms. Ballinger is the artistic director, is opening its new season with “Out of the City,” a comedy about marriage by Leslie Ayvazian, running at the Mill Hill Playhouse in Trenton, through Nov. 13.
The play follows two long-married couples who head to the Poconos to celebrate the 60th birthday of Carol (played by Ms. Ayvazian). Carol is married to Matt (played by Grant Shaud, known for playing Miles on the ’90s sitcom “Murphy Brown). They are joined by Jill (played by Ms. Ballinger and her husband Dan (Ken Land).¶
The Poconos isn’t Carol’s idea of a great vacation spot, as she’s not a big fan of nature, and wishes she was back in New York, but she goes along with the getaway to please her friend, Jill.
“Jill is a hiker, she’s an adventuress,” Ms. Ballinger says. “She’s always going out and doing something, going to Timbuktu, or Machu Picchu. She arranges the weekend, and the husbands go along, they’re pretty easygoing.”
Without giving too much away, let’s just say that something unexpected happens between two of these four people, and that leads to some panicking, along with a lot of questions about marriage.
“I was looking for a comedy, not only because of the context of these times,” Ms. Ballinger says of her decision to kick off Passage’s new season with “Out of the City.” “We do a lot of things that deal with things like race, mental health, a lot of social issues.
“This sort of straddles that. It’s not a social issue, but it does give voice to older couples and their marriages. And the sort of juice that goes on in a marriage after 30 years-plus, the connections that couples have. No one ever really focuses on that.”
Ms. Ayvazian has worked with Passage before, as she developed her play “Lovely Day” (about the impact of the Iraq War on a family) with the company. Ms. Ayvazian and Ms. Ballinger also know each other through their work with Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York. After this cast did a staged reading of “Out of the City,” it was decided that these actors should do a fully staged version of it, with Murphy Davis directing.
“When we did it, it was what she (Ms. Ayvazian) considered the perfect cast,” Ms. Ballinger says. ‘We were just perfectly cast for it. And she said, ‘Let’s do it.’ And I said, ‘Let’s do it at Passage first.’”
A good deal of the play’s humor comes from looking at couples that have been together for decades, and the comfort that comes with all those years. And that comfort influences the way these couples argue.
“It’s funnier than people being on their best behavior,” Ms. Ballinger says. “You don’t have to be on your best behavior if you challenge each other or correct each other, when you’ve been married 30 years.”
She also says people will be able to relate with these characters, and the play.
“It’s not making any kind of statements about anything,” Ms. Ballinger says. “I think people will leave the theater having had a good time, and having deeply laughed and maybe they’ll start thinking about the dynamics in their own marriages.”
“Out of the City” is being performed at the Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 E. Front St., Trenton, through Nov. 13. For tickets and information, go to passagetheatre.org or call 609-392-0766.
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